Fayette State Park, Michigan

Furnaces at Fayette

Yesterday, traveled from Montreal to Sudberry, Ontario, then today, we made it to upper Michigan. We’re staying the night in FayetteState Park, home to the historic townsite of Fayette. This was an iron smelter town from 1867 to 1890. Left on the grounds is the smelter, charcoal kilns, and some of the commercial and residential buildings of the company town of 500 people. It was a very different place to visit, a place to stop if you're nearby. The buildings are somewhat restored, usually a couple rooms in each building. They explained a lot about the original town, it’s inhabitants, and their work of restoring the town based on what they find on the grounds and buildings. 

Historic buildings of Fayette

We then headed to Appleton to visit my parents and see how they were doing. I got my perch dinner on the first night home and the next day we visited Door County and then had dinner with Bob and Cindy. 

Then off to Minneapolis to visit Laura and Greg. We worked on wedding plans, had a great dinner at  oriental restaurant and, of course, a Swedish breakfast on Sunday at the Taste of Scandinavia

We planned this trip, because we had always intended to revisit Nova Scotia after a short stay there a few years ago. A full week there was almost enough, if we had 2 more days we would have headed for the Northeast coast. We made use of it to visit friends and family along the way. We probably had too many long travel days - sometime, we've got to take a few months and just tour up and down the East Coast in a more leisurely manner.

If you'd like to see the video here on youtube. 

Montreal Botanical Gardens

We traveled to Montreal in the morning and our plan was to revisit the Montreal Botanical Gardens. We were quite impressed with the sheer size and variety of the gardens last time, and ran out of time to fully explore them. The sun came out after the rain of the morning and the gardens were spectacular. Our favorite part is the Chinese Gardens which are similar to what we saw in Shanghai many years ago. I also recommend the rose gardens, Japanese gardens, and the Lilac Gardens. We also took a walk through the woods. We ended up finally at the green house section which not only had tropical plants, but also featured orchids, desert plants and a Bonsai section. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Estilebe Chinese Garden

Quebec City

Friday was a travel day through New Brunswick. One part of the highway was devoid of towns for over 125 kilometers going through forest land on a road that was good in spots and bounced us around in others. There was almost no one on it. 

Hotel Frontenac

Saturday, we did a walking tour of the old city of Quebec. The fortress walls surround most of the old city and inside it seems your planted in an old French town. We spent quite a lot of time in some of the old churches – the chapel for the Ursaline convent, the Catholic Cathedral and the Episcopal church with its colorful organ. The upper town has most of the government and church buildings as well as the landmark Hotel Frontenac. We ate lunch on the steps down to the lower town which has a historic square with a church on it as well as many shops selling to tourists. Last time we had visited the Citadel, so this time, I had hoped to go to Battlefield Park which explains the battle between the French and English on the Plains of Abraham. But it was already 3:00 after our walk, we decided to relax instead.

Place Royale Lower Town

Bouctouche, New Brunswick

We traveled most of the day through rain from Cape Breton to Bouctouche, New Brunswick.  Our only stop of the day was the Irving Eco-Centre here in Bouctouche which helps preserve a 12 mile long sand dune between the Bay of St Lawrence and a river estuary. The rain stopped for a while, so we were able to walk the boardwalk for some 800 meters above the grass and sand. It was rather chilly, but that didn’t stop the kids from enjoying the beach.

Dunes at Bouchtouche

Cape Breton National Park

Cabot Trail 

We spent most of Tuesday traveling from Port Royale to Cape Breton in the far Northeast corner of Nova Scotia. We were careful never to let our tank get too low, because there are often 30-40 mile stretches of this island that don’t have a gas station. We camped at Broad Cove campground in the park (with electricity, water, and sewer). On Wednesday, we took a ride around most of the park on the Cabot Trail. We started out with a stiff wind and rain on the Atlantic coast. But after we turned inland, the rain stopped and we were able to do some sightseeing from the viewpoints and a number of short hikes. We had a nice hike to a waterfall on Macintosh Creek

, and through a bog area. But the highlight is the coast facing the Bay of Newfoundland.  Here the highway goes up some steep slopes rising to 400 meters high and then plunges down again. It is a beautiful coastline. We stopped at the visitor center on the other side, and then headed back and the rain began and kept going all night. I even had to barbecue in the rain. But a beautiful day even if the weather wasn’t sunny.

Macintosh Creek

Port Royale

Fort Anne

Monday, we headed back Northwest to camp in DunrominCampsite outside of Port Royale. Here we saw the remains of Fort Anne another star shaped Fort (but only in earthen works) from the time of the French and British competition. Port Royale was the original capital of Nova Scotia and in the officers quarter we saw one of the two remaining copies of the Charter of Nova Scotia. This town faced a similar history to Grand Pre with most of the French property confiscated and the people deported.

Historic Gardens

Nearby is the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. The gardens is particularly noted for his Rose Gardens, but it also has a large variety of different gardens and was a pleasant place to take a stroll admiring the various plants.

Nova Scotia Atlantic Coast

Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove

Sunday, we visited Peggy’s Cove, one of the most picturesque areas on the coast. The granite here gets pounded by the surf creating stone formations that look like the back of a whale. The lighthouse here is the most photographed spot in Nova Scotia. They’ve kept a rustic look to the boats and buildings making the whole place charming. Since the weather wasn’t particularly nice, we didn’t have to fight the crowds to see the place.

Peggy's Cove

We headed along the coast to the fishing and shipbuilding town of Lunenburg.  Here we visited the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. I was worried about another nautical museum and as expected the aquarium part of the museum was disappointing. But we were fascinated by our guided tour of one of the fishing schooners. Our guide had been a captain for over 32 years of his 47 years at sea. His explanation of the challenge of fishing really made it all come to life. This was hard work. He admitted that the fisherman were at fault for the decline in the fisheries. They would have to go out farther and farther to catch fish, and would cheat at any opportunity – to increase their catch, even if it was illegal. For example, they would sell catch to foreign ships who weren’t allowed there and then continue fishing for their own catch. It eventually resulted in the closing of the fisheries off of Newfoundland.

The Bluenose racing

The other superb story was the story of the Bluenose. We watched the film and saw the many exhibits.  In 1921, after the America’s cup had been cancelled because of 22 knot winds, the men of Lunenburg and Gloucester, Massachusetts, decided to have a race between fishing schooners. The purse was put up by a local merchant, and Gloucester won that first year. The next year, they built a new schooner, the Blue Nose (named for how your nose looked after being out at sea). The Blue Nose easily won, though the race was close, until they turned into the wind. This ship continued to win every time it sailed. It became famous, and was on the 50 cent stamp, the back of the Canadian nickel, and even today is on the license plate of Nova Scotia. It was never defeated retiring the International Fishing Trophy to Lunenburg in 1938, the last race before World War II and the last of the fishing schooner races. 

Grand Pre and Wolfville

Today, we took a short ride northwest, back to the Bay of Fundy and Grande Pre, one of the French settlements, founded here from the people who left La Rochelle and other parts of France. This fit in neatly with our trip to La Rochelle in May. The best part of the visit was the movie which explained the history of the area. They called this land Acadie. They built dikes to hold the tides of the Bay, and turned the land into rich farm land. The community was quite self-supporting. The problem was the British and the French were continually battling to control this region. The French controlled Quebec, the British, New England and this was the land between the two powers. The Acadians were caught in between. The British insisted that they take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown. The Acadians were concerned that this would subject them to fight the French. Meanwhile, most of their trade to get manufactured goods was with the French, which the British considered treasonous. While they tried to retain their neutrality, eventually, over the course of eight years the British deported them to New England and to France, confiscating their lands, and burning the village of Grand Pre.

Grand Pre Memorial

In the nearby town of Wolfville, we visited the AcadiaUniversity’s botanical gardens. In just a few acres, they created eight different plant zones, from bogs, to herb and vegetable gardens, to evergreen and deciduous forest. A nice little area. 

Pitcher Plant Flower

Halifax

The ditch of the Citadel

We spent the day in Halifax under nice blue skies. Our primary stop was the Citadel, inspired by the star pattern designed by Vauban who served Louis XIVth in France. We had seen a number of his Forts in France in May. This citadel was designed by one of his students. It is well designed with a ditch that you can’t see from the city. If it ever had been defended it would have been quite easy with rifle holes on both sides of the ditch and only one bridge that entered the Fort itself. Our guide explained a lot of what life was like in this fortification. We had a demonstration of a breech loading rifle, converted from a musket. All their weapons here are original, our rifle was from the 1870’s. It was amazing how quickly they got off one shot after another, about every 10-20 seconds. Our tour ended with the noon cannon, shot off every day except Christmas.

We ate lunch on the wharf (it turned out to be the same restaurant we went to years ago). We were a little disappointed in the meal, but the beer was good. After lunch we toured the Maritime Museum of theAtlantic. The most interesting part of the museum was the disaster of 1917. The SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship carrying munitions, collided with the Belgian Relief vessel SS Imo. The resulting explosion, the Halifax Explosion, devastated the Richmond District of Halifax, killing approximately 2,000 people and injuring nearly 9,000 others, destroying many of the building in Halifax.The museum also had several light house lamps, the story of the Cunard line (both commercial ships and cruise ships) and numerous ship models. Not quite as interesting as the Maine Maritime museum.

Lighthouse Lamp

Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park

Arctic Wolf

The next day we passed by Hopewell Rocks (another spot we had previously visited, which I would recommend) and continued on major roadways. Most of the day was spent going around the Bay of Fundy. We’d see low lands filled with mud, often quite far upstream from the Bay itself. When the tides can be 12m in difference, a lot of land gets flooded at high tide. We stopped at the Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park. This is a fairly small facility, primarily displaying the wildlife of Nova Scotia, with a few exotic animals from other regions. It was a nice break, and would really be a great stop with children, since you they allow you to feed many of the animals. The zoo is of the old style, with a lot of chicken wire fences between you and the animals. But we saw a lot of interesting birds, arctic wolves, and perhaps the only moose we’ll see in Canada (true). 

Himalayan Monal

We traveled on to our KOA campsite near Halifax, managing to miss an important turn which took almost ½ an hour to recover. This KOA is just packed solid with people from Nova Scotia. The lady at the desk said that many folks come from Halifax to spend their weekends or a week vacation here. They had a small pool, but lots of things for the kids to do – play area, a bouncing pad that was quite popular, canoes, and bikes for rent.

Our only Canadian Moose

Fundy National Park

It didn’t take very long this morning and we crossed the border into Canada. The road immediately improved to a four-lane auto route on our way up New Brunswick to Fundy National Park. It rained most of the way, but we arrived in time to at least do a little touring. We took a walk to Dickson Falls near the Bay. It was a pretty, very green brook in a fairly deep canyon. Lucky we got this hike in, because it started raining again immediately. I had hoped to walk the shore in low tide, but it wasn’t to be. 

Dickson Falls

Maine Maritime Museum

Model of the Wyoming

We headed up through seven miles of New Hampshire (they managed to charge a toll here), into Maine. Our primary stop for the day was the Maine Maritime Museum. At first, we were a little disappointed, until we joined a tour of the place. The museum is the original Percy & Small shipyard for building large wooden schooners, from 1894 to 1920, these were primarily used to haul coal from Maine down to Chesapeake  Bay. The largest of all of these ships was the six masted Wyoming (named because the investors were primarily from Wyoming). In the middle of the grounds was a sculpture that gave you a sense for the size of the ship (except the flag poles were only 120 feet high, versus the 170 feet of the original.

Actual size sculpture of Wyoming

Most of the original buildings of the shipyard are on the grounds (they had various uses including being warehouses for Sears since the time of the shipyard). The standard practice was to make a model of the ship, and then translate the model into actual size. By the time of this shipyard, they actually had to go South to find the yellow pine used to build the ship, men would go into the woods to find lumber of suitable size based on the models. The various buildings housed the translation of the model, saws to cut the wood, and steam boilers to bend the wood. The ribs were the primary structure with wooden plating above and below the ribs. After the ship was built, it was then water proofed. It was all quite fascinating. That night we camped outside Acadia National Park. (We didn’t enter the park, since we had been here a few years before and I’m trying to see new things on this trip.)

Working on the ribs

East Coast visits and Hyde Park

John and Helen Lucid with us 

We’ve been visiting friends and relatives for the last four days. We drove to Webster, NY or Friday and spent time with Val, our former sister-in-law and her family. We had a nice barbecue dinner and lots of reminisces from previous times. On Saturday, we drove to Hopewell Junction, NY to meet Greg’s parents for the first time. We had a good time, learning about their past, and having dinner on the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, NY. We lucked out, there were hot air balloons being launched from nearby. 

Springfield

Sunday we did our one tourist visit for these four days, we went to Hyde Park and Franklin D Roosevelt's Presidential Library (the first to be created). There are a lot of things to visit here, but we only had about three hours, so we concentrated on the Museum and Springfield, Roosevelt's home. The tour of the home is excellent, giving both it's history and amusing stories (like when King George VI saw Franklin's collection of British political cartoons, which Eleanor had asked to be removed before his arrival). We also spent what time we could at the Museum, focusing on his programs to try to end the Great Depression as well as prepare the country for World War II. We could have spent considerably more time here. 

Springfield Living Room with wheel chair

We continued on to New Britain, Connecticut to visit with Mark and Steve. They invited Darcy, Greg and Gail for dinner. As usual, we talked a lot about traveling and mutual friends. Finally, on Monday, we paid a visit to Ruth and her daughter, Emily in Reading, Massachusetts.  She had just been with us to France, but we got to see her new condominium, which was quite nice.

Do you know it's hard to be on your best behavior for four days in a row?

Hayes Presidential Center

We continued on through Ohio, stopping at the HayesPresidential Center. This made our 15^th Presidential museum or library. They claimed to be the first Presidential Museum (later FDR’s library claimed to be the first Presidential library). If you’re like me, you don’t know much about President Rutherford B. Hayes. He served in the Union Army, was elected congressman while still serving, then in 1867 he became the governor of Ohio. In 1876, he became the Republican candidate for President and ran against Samual J Tilden, the governor of New York. The governor of New York won the popular vote and had a firm 184 electoral votes, while Hayes had 165 electoral votes and 20 votes were contested from three different states (including Florida) Congress decided to appoint a commission to determine which electors should be recognized. This commission decided in Hayes favor for all three states, three days before inauguration day (March 20^th at this time). The Democrats acquiesced in what was termed the Compromise of 1877.  Inauguration day fell on a Sunday, so the public ceremony was to be held on Monday, but given that someone might object, Hayes took the oath of office in the White House on Sunday.  The primary accomplishment of Hayes, was that he ended the reconstruction era in the South and allowed them to become active again in the Union. He even appointed a Southerner into his cabinet, the Postmaster General. 

Rutherford B Hayes Home

The museum admission included a tour of his home, large at 3100 square feet. His father built it for him. The ground floor is decorated in the style of the 1870’s with most of the original furnishings, while the upstairs is decorated with family possessions from the 1950’s, when the house was turned into a museum. 

Studebaker National Museum

Wagon built for 1893 Columbian Exhibition

Today was our first real day of touring. Yes, we drove about 300 miles, but we stopped at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana.  Here we learned about the Studebaker family, who were originally blacksmiths but then began building wagons in 1852. The museum has a collection of Presidential carriages from this era: Lincoln, Grant, Harrison, and McKinley. In 1902, they started building automobiles, some of which we recognized as classics. The wagoner was unique – it was a station wagon, but the top could be removed to haul loads like a truck (assuming you wanted those items on a carpeted floor). Unfortunately, Studebaker didn’t keep up with the times in the 1960s and went bankrupt.  

Bullet Nose Studebaker from the 50's

The museum had a special exhibit on Lincoln's Final Journey including the buggy that delivered Lincoln to the Ford Theater where he was shot. The exhibit continued with the story of John Wilkes Booth and his fellow plotters, the search for the assassins, and their eventual hanging. 

Amana Colonies

This is the detailed blog of our trip to Nova Scotia in July, 2015. If you'd prefer a 6 minute video is available on youtube.

Per usual, we had a long travel day on our first day, taking I-80 to Lincoln, NE. The Camp A Way campground there was just off the interstate, but it was superb with large sites and lots of trees. We’ll use this campground again. Then we headed off on Tuesday to the Amana Colonies. Our intention was to walk a little of Amana and then have dinner at the Colony Inn, a restaurant we’ve coming to for years for the German family style food. But they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we instead went to the Ronneburg Restaurant. The food here was still traditional German family-style, but they didn’t serve the cold sweet sauerkraut that we both love. Still I would recommend this restaurant and don't forget to have a cold beer from the Mill Stream Brewery . We stayed at the Little Bear Campground outside of Liberty, IA.

Amana Colonies

Carcassonne

Carcassonne

It's as if we saved the best for last. We followed the Canale du Midi, which allowed the connection of the Mediterranean with the Atlantic in the 17th century to the fortified Cite of Carcassonne. This fortified town was established in the 6th century BC and its first walls were built in the 3rd century AD. It is probably the best example of defensive medieval fortifications in existence today. The town was quite strategic because it lies in the valley between the Pyrenees and the Black Mountains, controlling the road between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The fortifications were taken during the Albigensian Crusades (the fight between the Catholics and Cathars) on August 15th, 1209. Its downfall was lack of water. At the time, a village of 3000 people lived around the outside of the fortification, but the entire town was destroyed as part of the punishment for the heretics. Following the death of Simon de Montfort, the region became part of France. Now the town became important to defend the borders of France from Spain and Aragon. A second wall was formed outside the Roman walls in the 13th century.

Liste between the walls

As we gazed at the inner walls, you could see that the towers were closer together (50 meters) than the new walls (100 meters) because the invention of the crossbow which could shoot arrows further. The sloping grass leading to the Roman walls was leveled, so we could see the stone placed below the old Roman wall foundation. The liste between the walls would leave any enemy exposed to arrows, oil, and rocks if they managed to get past the first walls. A charge of cavalry between the walls was also a threat. We entered through the Noarbonne Gate and noticed how there were two gates with huge towers between. If one gate was breached the attackers could still be pounded with rocks and arrows as they attempted the second gate. The towers themselves were small fortifications (in gothic style) with water and food inside.

Inner Chateau

The fortification lost its importance in 1659 when the border with Spain moved to the other side of the Pyrenees. The fortification was abandoned in the 18th century and became the poor neighborhood of the city. It was in the 19th century that the fortification was restored over the course of 60 years by the architect Viollet-le-Duc. One of the gargoyles used in the restoration actually has his face! We also toured the chateau inside the fortification built in the 12th century by Vicomtes Trencavels. This has many of the defensive features we've already seen repeated for the castle itself. We walked the streets which used to be dirt with the dirty water down the center, today they are cobblestone, but still have a v shape to them. We were going to tour the Basilica of Saint Nazaire, the former Cathedral for the area, but Pentecost high mass was still being celebrated. This church is a mixture of Roman and Gothic styles and was originally built in the 12th century. We got to view it after lunch. And what a nice lunch - we stopped at one of the cafe's and had a 3 course meal and shared two bottles of the local wine.

Dame Carcas and Noarbonne Gate

So how did Carcassonne get its name? Legend has it, that the town was being besieged by Charlemagne. Dame Carcas suggested that even though they were starving that they overfeed the last remaining pig with grain and then throw it over the wall at the invading force. When they saw this fat pig, the army assumed that there was plenty of food and water remaining in the fortress and gave up the siege. The church bells rang to signal the end of the siege to their hero Dame Carcas. Thus the name Caracassonne, sonne means ring. 

This is the last day of the trip. If you want to see more pictures, there is a narrated 15 minute video on youtube.

So how do I sum up this trip? It's one of the first trips we've had where the highlight of the entire trip was the post-trip: Toulouse, Albi, Lautrec, and Carcassone. The riverboat experience was among the best (other than cabin size). I read the itinerary beforehand, but I was still surprised by how many chateaus and vineyards we visited. If you're interested in Bordeaux wine, this is a great trip. But as is usually the case, the program director and guides make or break the trip. Marie, was superb, she would stop people, tell them that she was leading a group of Americans, and ask them to tell us about themselves or the sites we were seeing. We met two mayors, a Dominican priest, several school groups (one of which sang 'happy birthday' to one of our members), a gardener, and several random folks we encountered. Marie has unique talent at getting people to interact. Our local guides were also superb, particularly our guide in Chartres (we learned a lot about stained glass windows and Renaissance statuary), our guide to Toulouse and St. Emilion, and our guide in Carcassone (who really explained the history and architecture of the place. Finally, our group was great, always on-time, always curious. 

Albi and Lautrec

Albi Cathedral

We headed to Albi, a city of 500K, known as the "Red City" As we approached the central square, one has to be impressed by what looks like a huge fortress in front of you. This is the 13th century brick Gothic cathedral. Instead of stone buttresses, here the buttresses are circular in brick. To the left is the Palace de Berbie (the bishop's palace). Formerly there was a cloister between the palace and the cathedral. Above it all is the 78 meter tall tower which was also an observation post for defense. This was to be the "Fortress of the Catholic Faith" as opposed to the Cathar faith which believed in a good and evil god. The cathedral was built between 1282 and 1480. What was unique about this church was inside - here over 35000 meters are painted (between 1509 and 1550) with not only traditional religious scenes, but also many geometric patterns. The amazing fact is that most of the painting has not been restored since the 16th century, yet it is quite vivid. Above the present day altar is a huge organ with 3500 pipes played with five keyboards. Just below the organ is the scene of the last judgement. In the choir area are stone carvings from the 15th century. These carvings did not suffer the defacement from the French Revolution that had occurred elsewhere. The timing for our visit was unique - they were about to celebrate confirmation. So we had the young teenagers all lined up in white with their candles. It forced us to cut short our visit to the Cathedral.

Confirmandi

Outside we visited the French Garden of the Palace de la Berbie, right next to the river Tarn. Inside the Palace is the museum specializing in the works of HenriToulouse-Lautrec. For a man who only lived into his 30's, it was amazing how many works he painted and how many of them are displayed at this museum. He painted a lot of the 'seedier' side of life - brothels, bars, dance halls, as well as interesting portraits of people - their mood seems to come across strongly, while most of the backgrounds are muted. The end of the exhibit featured many of the famous theater posters. We had a delicious lunch (a salad with bacon, pate, and vinegar, as well as a delicious piece of veal with vegetables) right next to the Cathedral. Then we had time to explore the city on our own. I crossed the old bridge for the view and to get a closer look at the old mills that used to operate on the river and then visited the church and cloister of Saint Salvi. After the cathedral, this was somewhat of a disappointment.

Albi's bridges and mills

In the afternoon, we headed to the tiny medieval village of Lautrec, in the middle of the region that grows pink garlic. The buildings here were quite charming and we enjoyed walking the streets to see the houses as well as the view of the countryside. The highlight was climbing to the windmill on top with its view of the village on one side and the black mountains and Pyrenees in the other direction. 

The village of Lautrec

Tonight, our Farewell dinner is at L'autan Tic on the Square of the Capitole. Mary isn't very happy, it was a choice between fish and duck. The duck was very good.

Toulouse

Capitole Square

As we walk into the center of the city, all the street are named in both French and Occitan, the original language of this region (Occ means "yes" in that Occitan language). While the buildings are predominantly red, we also see brick colored with chalk to look much more like the stone buildings of Paris. Stone is used mostly in government and church buildings, since it has to be shipped in. The Capitole is a prime example, this is the seat of government (the town hall) for Toulouse. From about 1200 until the French Revolution, the city was run by eight men of property who were elected for one year terms. During this time they made the laws, ran the city, and acted as judges. After their term, they were considered noblemen. The building facade dates from 1750. We entered by the Great Staircase to the halls above. The first major hall had paintings by Henri Martin (1860-1945) including “The Dreamers” with one boat doing laundry and another collecting sand for bricks and four panels, one for each season. The Salle des Illustres is used for conducting weddings typically 20-30 every Saturday. The end panels have paintings representing Pope Urban II entering Toulouse in 1096 and The Defense of Toulouse.

Jacobin's Church

Nearby we visited the Jacobins Church. Marie asked one of the Dominican monks to tell us some of the history. St. Dominic started preaching in Carcassonne to combat Catharism, an offshoot of Catholicism. The pope asked Dominic to begin an order here, the Dominicans, and he ordained two priests in Toulouse in 1215. So the Dominican order is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year. The church here is a Romanesque church built in the 14th century. It was very different than any other church we've seen, built of bricks with central columns. Originally, these columns separated the religious and the laypeople. The walls were painted to look like marble and the windows have red stained glass on the sunny side and blue on the north side. The arches are unique, especially the palm tree arch at the head of the church. The church was intentionally made to look massive to symbolize the power of the church. St. Thomas Aquinas’ relics lie here. After the French Revolution, the church became a stables with two floor above, one for sleeping and the other for a granary. It was only reopened after restoration in the 1970s. Only about 10 masses a year are celebrated, and one will be on Pentecost Sunday (in 2 days) and broadcast across France.

Our Lady of Grace

In the afternoon, Mary and I visited the Musée des Augustins, a former monastery, which was converted to a museum after the French Revolution. The collections included Our Lady of Grace restored from the 15th century and a collection of polychrome statues from the Rieux chapel built around 1340 at the Cordeliers Convent. Particularly interesting was a statue of Jean Tissendier (a rich bishop) donating the chapel. Next we came upon a series of capital stones from various 12th Century religious buildings from Toulouse. The next section of the museum had sculptures and paintings from the 17th to 20th century. I was particularly intrigued by the Nightmare sculpted by Euene Thivier.

 

Saint Sernin

After a quick rest, we then walked to the Saint Sernin Basilica. At one time this church would see a thousand pilgrims a day on the Way of St. James. The church was built in honor of a 3rd century bishop who was martyred here, dragged through the streets behind a bull. The church was consecrated in 1096 by Pope Urban II. Today, it is the largest Romanesque church still standing. In the crypt are the relics of 128 saints including four apostles. 

Bordeaux to Toulouse

Larressingle

Toulouse is only about 2 hours from Bordeaux if you take the AutoRoute, but we took the scenic route to get there. After days of seeing vineyards, we started going through pine forests harvested for timber. And then rolling hills with fields planted primarily with wheat and corn, a version of Iowa with stone houses and chateaus. Our first stop was the tiny13th century medieval town of Larressingle. An American from Boston fell in love with this village and he financed the restoration of the village which was completed in 2001. This was the ancient site of the Abbey de Condom. We ran into a school group learning their French history and got them to practice some of their English with us. Then we talked to the Mayor of the town about the restoration work here.

Inside the walls

Lunch was in the town of Condom. We wanted a simple lunch and settled for pizza. Afterwards, we walked some of the town square and visited the 14th century St. Peter's Cathedral. We also ran into a group of pilgrims, taking one of the four paths for the Way of St. James ending up in St. Jacque de Composostelle in Spain. They were various nationalities and had met as they walked the pilgrimage. In the town square was a statue of the four musketeers, since this is the region where they were from.

Hikers on Way of St. James

Late in the afternoon, we reached Toulouse, a city of 447,000 inhabitants and famous for its Universities with 90000 students. The first thing we noticed was the change in architecture - most building now are red brick rather than the limestone building we've seen during the first part of our journey, leading to the name "Pink City". The first University was established here in 1229. The University today is known for its colleges of Law, Medicine, and Aerospace. Another key industry in Toulouse is Airbus which employs over 22,000 people. 

Bordeaux

Portable Sundial

This was our day of leisure in Bordeaux. Mary and I took a walk along the quay in the morning and managed to get caught in the rain. At least, we had our raincoats with us! In the afternoon, we took the tram to the Musée d'Aquataine, which provided a great history of the region. The upstairs exhibits which covered the 18th century through today had English explanations throughout. (Unfortunately the videos were only in French.) It focused on Bordeaux’s importance in the 18^th century as a shipping port to Africa, and the West Indies. They had models of some of the ships from the 18th to the 20th century including the Conquerant, a 64 cannon ship that participated in the American Revolution. There was also an interesting portable sundial, different than anything I've seen before. We had a better explanation of the slave trade here than I've ever seen in the U.S. The history focused on the French islands of the West Indies, their importance for the sugar trade, slavery on the islands, and eventually the abolition of slavery. They also had some voodoo dolls from Africa. The most interesting one had chains and two alligator heads which was used to chase evil spirits from people who had to be chained because of the violence of their insanity. It was also interesting to learn about the 300 nobles beheaded here during the French Revolution. 

Voodoo Doll

This was our last day aboard the Chanson. We never got more than 30 miles or so from Bordeaux as we cruised the Garonne and Dordonne rivers. The crew has been wonderful, all of them very engaged with the passengers. The captain was the most outgoing we've encountered. Lastly, the food has been superb. Our only complaint: the lower cabins are pretty tight, with little room around the bed. 

River Chanson

Cadillac

Chateau Cadillac in 1759

Cadillac is a village of only 2500 inhabitants, but it also had its fortified wall built during the 100 Years War between France and England. We entered by the Porte du Mere (Sea Gate) built in 1315. Here they showed how the floods can affect the town - the worst flood actually reached the top of the gate. This was one of the original four gates. The town is a Bastide - fortified towns created by charter, built in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. Here  people built their houses and then farmed the surrounding land. Inside the walls, the 16th century chateau of Jean-Louis deLa Valette, first duke of Epernon. Henry III had given him many titles and posts, but Henri IV tried to sideline him by having him build an expensive chateau worthy of his rank, far from the capital. It had a traditional U shaped design. It was designed by two different architects so the front and the back are different. In 1818, the state acquired the chateau and it became a women's prison until 1890 and then a reform school for girls until 1952. While it was a prison, it was run by nuns and they enforced silence throughout the day. The prisoners would rise at 5 AM, have time for prayer followed by breakfast and then work in the workshops. Before lunch they could walk in single file around the courtyard. The same pattern was repeated in the afternoon and after dinner. The kitchen was interesting because it contained one of the first dumbwaiters for serving the food as well as a connection to a sewer which ran to the river. The kitchen also served as a workshop for making the tapestries of Cadillac. Only one such tapestry remains in the chateau, the Siege of La Rochelle. So is there a relation between Cadillac, France and the Cadillac car? Yes, both were named for  Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, the founder of Detroit. 

The Seige of La Rochelle

In the afternoon, we visited a family run winery, Chateau Piada, in the region Barsac-Sauterne. The chateau was originally from 1274. The current owner's grandfather bought the winery in 1940 from a cousin. Frederick, the owner, is trying to learn English to better host the Grand Circle visitors. He did pretty well for the several months of practice, but his vocabulary, as you might imagine, is somewhat limited.

We also met his Father, Jean, whose story of World War II we heard. In the early years, the Belgian and French forces were fleeing from the enemy. They would live for over ten years without electricity or gasoline, but continue to farm. One morning, they listened for 15 hours to the deafening engine noise of the German army passing by. Eventually some young SS troops were stationed here. Jean as a 10 year old boy was impressed by their discipline, goose-stepping parade, and singing. In 1944, a room in their house was commandeered for two lieutenants who had been on the Russian front and they heard the stories of the atrocities that were committed between the Germans and Russians. Later, they would have a similar experience in France.

Jean

We tasted three white wines that were very fruity and unique. The fog from the river here encourages a fungus to grow on the grapes , the Botyrtis Cinerea. The grapes are harvested in 4-6 picking choosing the grapes that have been shriveled up the fungus. The wine is aged for one year in barrels and then filtered and kept in stainless steel vats until 18-20 months after the harvest. They only produce about 1100 bottles a year from this winery. 

After our visit, we almost got lost trying to find the Chateau Yquem, one of the top wineries in the region. The gardens of this Chateau were truly magnificent and the Chateau was quite picturesque. On the way back to the ship, our bus broke down, and Frederick and Jean ended up ferrying us in two cars to get back. More of an adventure then we had planned on.

The gardens of Chateau Yquem

The directors invited Frederick and Jean to the Captain's farewell dinner. The meals on this ship have been exceptional. We had some terrific soups, eggplant and mustard soup, which were quite unique and delicious. Tonight’s meal was filet-mignon, one of the best I've ever tasted. Afterwards we had the crew talent show. Of course, there was much more show than talent and had everyone laughing. It didn't hurt that we had a margarita and several glasses of wine beforehand. By the end of the evening we were up dancing the chicken dance and YMCA.